Salut chers amis !
It is with joy and gladness of heart that we say happy new month (bon début du mois) to you all. We appreciate you for having been with us this far.
Last month was awesome with you and we believe this month is going to be even more awesome. You're officially welcomed to another moment of learning French Grammar for Beginners on Ma Petite France.
Let's have a little recap now..
Last month, we began to look into the simple uses of French present tense where we learnt that the French present tense has three equivalent forms in English. These three forms are expressed just in one way in French language. In case you missed the class on conjugation of French verbs in present tense, check post here- www.mapetitefranceng.com/blog-1/french-present-tense-m-p-f-g102
The French present tense, like we've learnt, expresses both the normal, progressive and emphatic forms of present tense in English.
See example :
Je vais à l'école = I go to school (habit), I am going to school (present continuous), I do go to school (emphatic).
It is not new that most beginners in French often make the mistake of translating the "am" in the present continuous tense "I am going" in French as "Je suis...". This is very wrong and not acceptable. The conjugation of the verb in present tense already carries the element of present continuous.
We also learnt that the French present tense can be used to express something one is going to do in the near future by using a time indicator to show when exactly.
Read post here- www.mapetitefranceng.com/blog-1/present-tense-time-prepositions-mpfg102
Example: Je vais à l'école demain = I am going to school tomorrow.
In the above sentence, the verb is conjugated in present tense but the action will be taking place in the near future.
To add to this, we learnt that the French present tense is also used for expressing an action that started in the past and is still on at the moment when one is speaking. In this case, English uses the present perfect tense while French uses the simple present tense coupled with "depuis =since/for" and a time indicator.
Examples :
Il travaille ici depuis 2012 = He has been working here since 2012.
Elle mange depuis le matin = She has been eating since morning.
After this, we saw how to easily change a sentence in French from the affirmative form to the negative form with the use of "ne...pas" as the major negative marker in French which is equivalent to "not" as in English. It was said that the main conjugated verb of the sentence we want to negate should be rightly placed between "ne" and "pas".
Read post here- www.mapetitefranceng.com/blog-1/negating-sentences-m-p-f-g103
Example :
Je regarde la télévision = I am watching the television (affirmative).
Je ne regarde pas la télévision = I am not watching the television (negative).
I hope the past month was enlightening and full of learning. This month promises to be better. Stay with us as we make you enjoy learning French grammar with ease on Ma Petite France.
Once again, bon début du mois (Happy new month).
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